(new: closing price, analyst opinion LBBW and company statements)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - New study data on the cancer drug Pelabresib caused the Morphosys share price to plummet on Tuesday. After strong fluctuations in pre-market trading, the bears finally prevailed in Xetra trading: At the close of trading, the drop amounted to 21.3 percent to 16.87 euros. At a low of 14.52 euros, the loss even amounted to around a third. This was the lowest level since the beginning of April.

The share price had thus more than halved in just eight trading days. Analysts at the investment bank Van Lanschot Kempen wrote of a "continued downside potential due to the uncertainty surrounding the approval of the cancer drug". This was accompanied by financial risks and the company's cash resources were "relatively tight" with a view to 2025. The experts halved their price target from 20 to 10 euros, signaling further downside risks.

According to expert Timo Kürschner from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), the data was only partially convincing. In his opinion, approval is possible; however, it is currently difficult to estimate the range of applications and the possible market potential.

Meanwhile, Morphosys CEO Jean-Paul Kress emphasized that the company had achieved the best data ever in myelofibrosis. This will lead to a radical change in the current treatment of affected patients. The company has good cards in a market worth several billion. Morphosys has a strong data package for complete commercialization, he added in response to the question of whether the regulatory authorities could possibly only grant limited approval.

From a technical chart perspective, the picture for Morhosys shares has now clouded over considerably. Last Thursday, the shares of the developer of anti-cancer drugs had already fallen below the 200-day line, which is regarded as an indicator of the longer-term trend. At prices below 11.80 euros, the shares would fall to their lowest level since 2009.

Since the multi-year high of EUR 146.30 in January 2020, the shares have only gone in one direction - down. At the beginning of 2020, Morphosys was at times worth well over four billion euros on the stock exchange. It is now worth just around 572 million euros./bek/ag/ajx/jha/